Obama buries victories

December 16, 2011|By Paul Rogat Loeb

Did you know President Obama's health care bill contained a $20 billion a year tax on the richest Americans? I didn't until I stumbled onto an obscure blog mention, although writing about politics is my life. I asked a few dozen friends, fellow political junkies and half involved in health care. None of them knew either. If those who follow these issues intensely don't know about a significant step toward getting the wealthiest to pay their fair share, distracted American voters sure aren't going to know either.

The tax supports Medicare and low-income health care subsidies. Beginning in 2013, it will bring in $210 billion over 10 years by charging households that make over $250,000 a year 3.8 percent on everything over that amount. The provision helps cover those who couldn't otherwise afford health care and also applies to investment and dividend income, a key precedent toward ensuring billionaires pay at least the same share of taxes as self-employed carpenters. It got modest coverage when it passed, and accountants all know about it. But the rest of us don't — or have forgotten.

I don't know why Obama hasn't highlighted this stand, given how much it would encourage his demoralized base. Maybe Rahm Emanuel convinced him that the issue was a political loser, though polls consistently support higher taxes on the wealthy and this taxes just the top 2 percent. Maybe it's Obama's reluctance to take controversial stands. But if he wants to convince ordinary Americans that our fates are indeed tied together, he'd better start embracing those moments where his administration has actually made progress.

Since Occupy Wall Street, Obama's started to speak out more forcefully. Yet here's an example, and there are others, where he's actually required those at the top to start carrying a bit more of their fair share, yet said next to nothing to highlight this to the rest of us. It's long overdue that he begin.

Paul Loeb is author of Soul of a Citizen, with 130,000 copies in print including a newly updated second edition.